A Rush to Judgment

Then came the call in 1997 to become Reno's deputy, overseeing a $22 billion budget and 125,000 employees. He would come to call it the "most physically demanding job that I ever had."

"I had a certain hesitation about it, because it seemed more managerial than I would have liked. And I was also moving from a number one position to a number two position," Holder recalls. But it was also a big step on the stairway to the stars. Few expected Reno to last to the end of Clinton's term.

Reno stayed, but Holder was still positioned on the inside rail. He did his best to dodge trouble and minimize the number of people who considered him an enemy. He was preparing to leave office on a high. And then along came the Rich case to put Holder in the witness chair.

"I've seen it happen at different times to other people and thought, 'That's unfair.' But whatever my feelings were about other people in other situations, it's an entirely different situation when you're in the middle of it," Holder says. "Especially when I tried to reconstruct my part and I didn't think I was in the middle of it."

The End-Around The last full day of the Clinton presidency was Jan. 19. Across Washington, the political appointees who owed their jobs to the Democratic administration were packing their last boxes and saying their goodbyes. At Justice, amid the handshakes and hugs, Holder was preparing to become acting attorney general until the Senate voted on the nomination of John Ashcroft.

That was the day Clinton, racing the clock, considered clemency for Rich and 175 others. It was the day, too, when White House counsel Beth Nolan called Holder and heard him say he had no objection to a pardon, although he knew Rich was a fugitive. Nolan is scheduled to talk publicly about the pardons today for the first time, at a Capitol Hill hearing.